Cold, short days do not usually inspire us to start planning our 2014 race calendar. But for those of us on the THPL journey we know that races are good for us – they give us something to focus on –race planning gets us excited to keep training and it will stretch us to do more than we would otherwise do. And with 11 months ahead of us in 2014, it might just be the perfect to set out some goals and races that you want to participate in.

Many THPL practitioners train all year long (which is great) but along the way you forget or forgo races. There’s no quicker way to get slow that to keep doing the same routine day in and day – if you train slow all the time you become slow – and while not a bad outcome it does not take us to the next level and we don’t take full advantage of what we are capable of. Use this early season to get out and race and you will improve your speed and your focus – getting sharper and better every day. And once you get this process going you will most likely find out that the race planning process just kick started your 2014 with you getting better and better as each day passes.